Professor Dr Clare Bambra

Research Priorities: Public health, social epidemiology, health inequality, evidence-based health policy
Clare Bambra is a British social scientist. As an expert in public health she studies the social, economic, and political causes of health inequalities. The coronavirus pandemic attracted public interest in her work; she showed how more marginalised groups, particularly in deprived areas and in the north of England, were affected by the pandemic. Her research projects are aimed at developing effective strategies to improve health and reduce inequalities. She is also involved in putting scientific findings to practical and policy use.
Life expectancy varies considerably, depending on social and geographical factors: On average, Americans die three years earlier than Swedes, and people from the north of England around two years earlier than those in the south of the country. The contrast is particularly drastic in Stockton-on-Tees, a town in the north of England where men in the town centre die, on average, 15 years younger than those in the suburbs. These differences highlight the close link between health and living conditions.
Clare Bambra’s seminal COVID-19 studies illuminate this close link between social disadvantages and health risks. People in poorer regions are more often chronically ill and die considerably younger. Clare Bambra argues for evidence-based policies and stresses the need to tailor solutions to local circumstances in order to tackle health inequality.
In recent studies she has investigated the development of health differences in the 20th and 21st centuries. She used studies from the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Western Europe to derive a U-shaped curve depicting health inequalities. This U-shaped curve largely corresponds to the curve that economists created to represent income and wealth inequalities in the 20th and 21st centuries. She has also led extensive comparative studies of health inequalities across Europe and between the East and West of Germany. These long-term studies underline the importance of political action to improve the state of health in the future.
Clare Bambra’s research into health policy, health geography, and social epidemiology has helped to both deepen our understanding of health inequalities and to reduce these inequalities. She works in an interdisciplinary manner, drawing on socio-medical and economic studies, as well as geographical aspects, to supplement her political focus.
Clare Bambra has published several books and numerous highly-cited specialist articles that often provide a basis for practical health policies and strategies. In cooperation with organisations such as the National Institute of Health and Care Research (UK), the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (UK) and WHO (Europe), she is committed to ensuring that scientific insights inform effective public health measures.